Mike & The Meatstick

In honor of the Mike Gordon contest here on The Butter Room, I have decided to share my favorite Mike story. The show started with Soul Shakedown Party and we knew it’d be a fun night. Back in Vegas 04 it was setbreak and we were just waiting for the phish to come back and melt our faces. I was sitting with another Butter Room resident, Matt, and we were talking to a guy from Colorado I believe. We brought up how fun it would be if they opened set 2 with The Meatstick. So we decided we should start doing the meatstick dance. We were seated on the floor, about 5 rows back in the middle, but more towards Mike’s side.

We got a small group up and started doing it, then a section just above the walkway to the stage on Mike’s side started to do it, then many other people at the Thomas & Mack started to do it. It was the dance craze that swept vegas that phine night. Phish came out on stage, and I don’t know how he knew, but he looked right at us on the floor doing the dance, and he gave us a nod, then they started to get phunky.

Much to our delight, later that evening, Trey, Mike & the crowd had a Meatstick reprise within a wonderful YEM, by doing the meatstick dance while Fishman was soloing. Mike then took it away with a slick solo.

The blurrycam shot I have above is the only shot I have of Mike doing The Meatstick that night, and I hate to make it sound like we’re taking all the credit for the song that night, but hey, from where I was standing we started it, I’ll always think of it as our meatstick, an awesome time in Vegas where I first met Matt, and I know that Mike was one of the biggest reasons we were there.